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Plockton Village Hall
on Monday 29 August 2001, 7.30 pm |
| Present |
Iain Turnbull (Facilitator)
Lynn Bruce
Donald MacKenzie
Iain MacLennan
Charlie MacRae (Community Council)
Donald Ross
Alex Townend |
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| Iain Turnbull, summarising the proceedings of the previous meeting
in June, opened the meeting. It was noted that a proposal to fence the old
part of the village with a Management Agreement setting out the number of
cattle in the village at any one time had been put forward. This proposal
was to be discussed at a subsequent meeting of the crofter shareholders and
the Community Council. Donald Ross explained that the crofters had held a
shareholders meeting on 2 August which was attended by 13 crofters. The view
of that meeting was that there was no objection to the fence and cattle grid
in principle but the exact location and extent needed to be clarified and
agreed. There was concern expressed about who would pay for the erection of
the fence and the future ownership and responsibility for maintenance of it.
The absence of any protection around the High School from cattle was noted
and queried as well. The only other point raised by the crofters related to
the various access routes for cattle into the village being blocked by whins
and other scrub. It was proposed that as part of any project there should
be some improvements made to these routes. There had also been some discussion
about the soundings of the various shareholders and whether or not this information
ought to be made public. |
| Charlie MacRae reported on the views of the Plockton & District
Community Council members. There had not been a formal meeting, due to the
summer recess, but members had been asked for their opinion. Due to the large
numbers of cattle in the village since the last meeting and subsequent mess,
the non-crofting view had changed to support a complete exclusion of stock
from the village. This prompted considerable discussion about the practicalities
of such a proposal and the crofters expressed severe concern about it. |
| In summary, the view of the crofters was that a fence and cattle
grid were acceptable with agreed numbers of cattle being allowed into the
village at agreed times. They were opposed to complete livestock exclusion.
The crofters should not bear the cost of erection of the fence or subsequent
maintenance. They were happy to apply for CCAGS grant aid towards the project
(currently 55% of total cost). The location of the fence and grid outlined
at the previous meeting was broadly acceptable to the crofters but they would
still like to see vegetation management improvements carried out to the access
routes through the village. The view of the Community Council was that there
should be a complete exclusion of livestock from the village and that if this
was not forthcoming then HC Protective Services would test for E.Coli and
if necessary ban cattle and prosecute any owners of livestock found in the
village. |
| Ian Turnbull and Willie Smith both explained that they had hoped
to find an acceptable compromise that would be seen as an improvement on the
status quo. As a result there was a lengthy compromise about how such a discussion
might be achieved. It had been suggested that if there had only been about
ten cattle in the village, the problem would probably have gone away. Therefore,
it was suggested that a compromise be implemented where the number of cattle
be restricted to 15 head (including followers) at the request of the crofters.
In order to manage this access properly, it was suggested that these cattle
be allowed into the village during the normal summer season, when they would
be on the grazings rather than the crofts, from 1 April to 31 October, but
only for every second two-week period. All cattle would be herded in and out
of the village on a daily basis with none being left in overnight. There would
be no cattle in the village for the three weeks prior to the sports day. It
was also suggested that attempts to permanently protect the play area from
grazing would be explored. It was agreed that Charlie MacRae would propose
this to the Community Council at this meeting on 18 September and, if agreed,
the three crofters present would propose this to the full Grazings Committee
immediately afterwards. Assuming agreement was obtained, then Iain Turnbull
would act as Project Manager and start looking actively into the required
planning permissions, the costs involved and possible sources of funding. |
| Next Meeting |
| No date was set for a follow-up meeting but it is proposed that
a follow-up meeting be held as soon as possible after the Grazings Committee
have considered this proposal. This should be early in October. A provisional
date is proposed for 2 October at 7:30 pm in Plockton Village Hall, subject
to the responses from the various committees. Please confirm to Iain Turnbull
(01599 566 325) that you would be able to make this date as soon as possible. |
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